How to Make a Mosaic With Photoshop CS5

By Jason Artman

Adobe Photoshop CS5 can create a tiled mosaic, called a "contact sheet," from many photos. This feature allows you to create a large image that appears to be made from many small ones. You select the images to use for the tiles of the mosaic, change their dimensions to create many small squares, create a contact sheet from the squares, select a primary image to superimpose over the contact sheet, then blend the two together to create the final image.

Step 1

Right-click your desktop, then select "New" and "Folder." Name the folder "Mosaic" and press "Enter." Copy all of the images you want the mosaic to include into this folder. Do this by right-clicking the images and selecting "Copy" so as not to modify the original images.

Step 2

Launch Photoshop CS5 and open the first image in the "Mosaic" folder.

Step 3

Click the "Window" menu at the top of the screen and select "Actions." This displays the Actions tool. Click the button under the "X" in the upper-right corner of the tool and select "New Action" on the pull-down. Type "Image Resize" in the "Name" field and click "Record."

Step 4

Click the "Image" menu at the top of the screen and select "Image Size." This brings up a new window. Click the drop-down menu next to "Resample Image" and select "Bicubic Sharper." Remove the check from the "Constrain Proportions" box. Enter square dimensions, such as "0.5 inch," in the Width and Height fields, then click "OK."

Step 5

Click the "Stop" button at the bottom of the Actions tool.

Step 6

Click the "File" menu at the top of the window. Select "Automate" and "Batch." Click the "Action" drop-down menu and select "Image Resize." Click the "Source" drop-down menu and select "Folder." Click the "Choose" button under "Source," select the "Mosaic" folder on the desktop and click "OK." Click the "Destination" drop-down menu and select "Save and Close." Click "OK." Photoshop resizes the images in the "Mosaic" folder to create many small squares. You may have to click "OK" several times during this process.

Step 7

Click the "File" menu at the top of the window. Select "Automate" and "Contact Sheet II" to bring up a new window. Click the "Choose" button and select the "Mosaic" folder on the desktop. Enter the desired dimensions for the mosaic in the Width and Height fields, and enter the desired number of rows and columns. Place a check in the box labeled "Flatten All Layers" and click "OK." This creates the base image for the mosaic by tiling all of the square images you created in the "Mosaic" folder.

Step 8

Click the "File" menu at the top of the window and select "Place." Double-click the image file you want to use as the primary image for the mosaic. Photoshop displays the image over the tiled images.

Step 9

Click the "Window" menu at the top of the screen and select "Layers" to display the Layers tool. Click the drop-down menu in the upper-left corner of the Layers tool and select "Hard Light." Click the button next to "Opacity" and lower the slider to blend the primary image with the mosaic until you are happy with the final image.

Step 10

Click the "File" menu at the top of the screen and select "Save As" to save the mosaic.